Redguard
New member
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2014
- Messages
- 11
- MBTI Type
- ISFJ
While sitting in church this past weekend, my wife picked up the bulletin and pointed to an event that was being hosted in mid-November.
Gary Chapman, the author of the 5 Love Languages, was going to be coming to our church as part of his speaking tour.
No words were exchanged. She just pointed at it, and smiled at me. I smiled in return, and nodded my head.
As far as I could tell, we just had a moment of communication. She was silently indicating to me that this was something that she wanted us to attend. We're familiar with the concept, having studied it during a marriage course we had taken recently. We have the book, along with the workbook that accompanies it. She likes Acts of Service. I like Words of Affirmation.
Thinking that I had received the right message, I followed through and purchased tickets for the event.
I told her about the ticket purchase and was met with confusion on her part.
It turns out that she pointed at it because she thought it would be interesting and had actually wanted to recommend it to a friend. But for us it would be unlikely because she thinks that she'll still be recovering from a minor surgery that she'll be having about 2 weeks prior to the event.
I was left a bit flustered by all this... actually, still working on bringing my temperature back down to normal levels.
It all just reminded me about how intentional MY communication is as well as how intentional I treat communication from others.
I've made this mistake before with her... where she's just thought something out loud and I interpreted it as a request or a desire on her part and then took action.
I'm certain that this is one of those introverted things... I mean, why say something unless it serves an actionable purpose? Obviously, I ask that question in jest because there's nothing wrong with just thinking out loud... it's just not something that I personally do.
I think that this is an example of how much of a weakness communication is for me. Oddly enough, I'm great at public speaking... as long as I have time to prepare a script or organize my thoughts on paper first. But just dealing with random thoughts... frustrating.
Gary Chapman, the author of the 5 Love Languages, was going to be coming to our church as part of his speaking tour.
No words were exchanged. She just pointed at it, and smiled at me. I smiled in return, and nodded my head.
As far as I could tell, we just had a moment of communication. She was silently indicating to me that this was something that she wanted us to attend. We're familiar with the concept, having studied it during a marriage course we had taken recently. We have the book, along with the workbook that accompanies it. She likes Acts of Service. I like Words of Affirmation.
Thinking that I had received the right message, I followed through and purchased tickets for the event.
I told her about the ticket purchase and was met with confusion on her part.
It turns out that she pointed at it because she thought it would be interesting and had actually wanted to recommend it to a friend. But for us it would be unlikely because she thinks that she'll still be recovering from a minor surgery that she'll be having about 2 weeks prior to the event.
I was left a bit flustered by all this... actually, still working on bringing my temperature back down to normal levels.
It all just reminded me about how intentional MY communication is as well as how intentional I treat communication from others.
I've made this mistake before with her... where she's just thought something out loud and I interpreted it as a request or a desire on her part and then took action.
I'm certain that this is one of those introverted things... I mean, why say something unless it serves an actionable purpose? Obviously, I ask that question in jest because there's nothing wrong with just thinking out loud... it's just not something that I personally do.
I think that this is an example of how much of a weakness communication is for me. Oddly enough, I'm great at public speaking... as long as I have time to prepare a script or organize my thoughts on paper first. But just dealing with random thoughts... frustrating.
